• & 23-5 o 

' HO? 



ARTICULATION 

OF HIGH SCHOOL 

AND COLLEGE 



REORGANIZATION 
OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



ARTICULATION OF 
HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 

THE REORGANIZATION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



STATEMENT 



OF THE HIGH SCHOOI. TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 
OF NEW YORK CITY 

OPINIONS -*"'5'- 

FROM COIvIvEGE PRESIDENTS, SUPERINTENDENTS, 
AND HIGH SCHOOI^ PRINCIPALS 

RESOLUTIONS 

ADOPTED BY THREE DEPARTMENTS OF THE 
NATIONAL, EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 



HIGH SCHOOL 

TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 

New York City 

November, 1910 



mm 

APR 2 1811 






INTRODUCTION 



The conviction is spreading throughout the United States that our 
high schools are seriously handicapped by present college entrance 
requirements. In the west, the colleges and high schools are co-operat- 
ing with marked success in bringing about a better articulation of these 
two institutions. In order to hasten a reform in the east the High 
School Teachers Association of New York City at its meeting in March, 
191Q, authorized the President of the Association, Mr. Arthur L. Janes, 
to appoint a committee of five to consider what steps should be taken. 
He appointed the following committee: — William McAndrew, Principal 
of the Washington Irving High School; Ellen R. Rushmore, of the 
Manual Training High School; James Sullivan, Principal of the Boys 
High School; James F. Wilson, of the Stuyvesant High School; and 
Clarence D. Kingsley, of the Manual Training High School, Chairman. 
This committee made a detailed study of the entrance requirements of 
a large number of colleges and drew up a statement setting forth the 
impossibility of wisely meeting the needs of our high school students 
on account of present college entrance requirements. The committee 
suggested two methods of improving the situation: 

1. By the first method college entrance would be based upon the 
simple fact of graduation from a four-year course in a first-class high 
school. This method would give complete satisfaction to the high 
school. If supplemented by competent examination into the efficiency 
of each school, we believe this method would tend to develop within the 
high school that independence, breadth, and judgment required to pro- 
duce the best results. The improvement in the high schools would 
result in better preparation and more students for the college. 

2. The second method, not as radical as the first, was proposed, in 
order that the high schools might derive as soon as possible some meas- 
ure of relief from present conditions. 

This second method calls for: 

(a) the reduction in the number of so-called "required" subjects, 
together with 

(b) the recognition of all standard subjects, as electives. 

The requirement of two foreign languages from every student is 
regarded as particularly objectionable. 

The committee reported its conclusions at the annual meeting of the 
association May 7th, 1910. The association ratified its statement, which 
Is given on pages 8 and 9 of this pamphlet, and instructed the com- 

3 



mittee to send it out and to invite correspondence upon the matters 
involved. 

The committee wrote to the Presidents of one hundred and fifteen 
colleges, to each State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and to a 
number of City Superintendents and High School Principals. The 
replies in which opinions were expressed are given, practically com- 
plete, in this pamphlet, and arranged by states, the replies from the 
■colleges being given first under each state. Two or three replies have 
been omitted because they were not for publication. All the replies in 
this pamphlet, with one exception, were received in May and June. 

ANALYSIS OP REPLIES. 

We have received expressions of opinion from the presidents of the 
twenty-five following colleges and universities: — Adelphi, Brown, 
Buffalo, Case School, Chicago, Dickinson, Girard, Goucher (formerly 
Woman's College of Baltimore), Haverford, Illinois, Massachusetts 
Agricultural, Middlebury, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ohio, 
Pittsburgh, Purdue, Rochester, St. Johns, Stevens, Swarthmore, Trinity, 
Tufts, and Williams. 

Of the presidents of these twenty-five colleges and universities, three 
state that they are not in favor of the change from two to one foreign 
language. Nearly all of the other presidents endorse some or all of 
the recommendations indicated in our statement. Several college 
presidents write that they will recommend forthwith to their faculties 
modifications as suggested, and in several cases the presidents are in 
favor of our first proposition, namely admitting students upon gradua- 
tion from standard high schools. In some cases, the presidents write 
that they have already reduced the number of required subjects and 
have recognized a wide range of subjects as electives. 

Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University, is 
one of the few who take a different view of the situation. He dis- 
approves of the accrediting system. He disapproves of admitting 
students with only one foreign language. He sanctions a wide range 
of subjects as electives but his reply seems to indicate a belief that 
a wide differentiation of high schools may accomplish the ends of a 
wise reorganization of secondary education. This, however, as a 
substitute for a revision of entrance requirements would assume that 
the students in commercial and other modern courses would continue 
to have the present difficulties in preparing for a regular college. 

From the following eight colleges and universities we have received 
replies from professors to whom our statement was referred: Cornell, 
Columbia, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State, Ohio Wesleyan, Pennsylvania, 
Union, and theUniversity of Washington. 



We have received replies from the State Superintendents of Public 
Instruction in the following states: Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode 
Island, New York, New Jersey, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico; from 
State Superintendent Joyner of North Carolina, President last year of 
the National Education Association; from Deputy Superintendent 
Tietrick of Pennsylvania; and from State High School Inspector Hay- 
ward, who writes for the State Superintendent of North Dakota. It is 
significant that every one of these superintendents, without exception, 
agrees wholly, or in the main, with our recommendations. State 
Superintendent Draper of New York writes, "I think that the colleges 
should receive the graduates of recognized high schools and give them 
their opportunity to show whether or not they can do college work." 
State Superintendent Snedden of Massachusetts writes, "The present 
situation is most objectionable, and especially in the restrictive effects 
it is having on true high school development." State Superintendent 
Stone of Vermont sets forth the function of the high school thus: 
"The chief function of the high school is to enable the individual to 
find out what he can best do and to. give him a certain degree of 
culture and discipline. If the individual is required to fit the school 
and the school does not fit the individual, the individual becomes crip- 
pled, and we are having too many deformities as a result of our 
restricted and required courses." 

We have also received expressions of opinion from about twenty 
superintendents of schools in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleve- 
land, Springfield, and other important school systems. These replies 
have been practically unanimous in endorsing the movement. The 
majority were emphatic in their approval. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL. 

The articulation of high school and college should proceed upon a 
clear conception of the functions of the high school. These functions 
seem to be the three following: 

(1) To help the individual discover what he can best do in view of 
his own ability and the conditions in his community. 

(2) To give him a carefully planned course, adapted to his needs 
as rapidly as his bent is discovered. 

(3) To inspire him to continue his education further if circum- 
stances warrant. 

If this statement is sound, it follows that: 

(1) To perform the first function, our high school educators need 
to be able to help the student discover his bent and to know the vari- 
ous opportunities existing in the community. 

(2) The second function calls for many differentiated courses, and 
many prefer to have these courses side by side in the same school so that 



the student may be encouraged and not hindered in selecting the course 
best for him, when he discovers himself. 

(3) The third function calls for the broadening of the basis of 
college entrance, in order that we may have no unnecessary blind alleys 
in our high schools. 

In addition to those four-year courses, which we hope the college will 
soon fully recognize, many communities need the establishment of 
two-year courses and trade courses planned without reference to college 
admission. 

SALIKNT POINTS IN THE DISCUSSION. 

First. Frequent reference is made in the replies received to the 
fact that no one can foreteii upon a student's entering high school 
whether or not he will finally go to college. We wish to emphasize 
this as the fundamental point in our whole discussion. If it were 
possible to. foretell, the American high school should be censured for 
not performing its third function, that of inspiring students to a desire 
for higher education. The colleges themselves have long recognized 
the desirability of encouraging children from the humblest families in 
their endeavor to obtain a higher education. Any separation of students 
into college preparatory high schools and other high schools would 
be a distinct abandonment of that which American education has 
heretofore regarded as its greatest achievement. Such a system might 
be viewed with favor in a country dominated by class distinctions. 

Second. We fear that the educational value of manual training 
and commercial subjects is not yet fully recognized. We do not agree 
with the idea that these subjects should be taken in the high school 
only by those whose college course is to contain a continuation of 
these subjects. On the contrary, if a student is going to a college where 
no opportunity is afforded for the education that comes through the 
hand, or where no courses are offered in commercial theory and prac- 
tice, his need for some such work in the high school is all the greater. 
For instance, engineers often fail from lack of business sense, and 
physicians and surgeons need skill of hand. 

Third. Our education would gain in power and in virility if we made 
more of the dominant interest that each boy and each girl has at the 
time. A high grade course in stenography and typewriting that appeals 
to the dominant interest of the boy or girl will afford excellent training 
in spelling, punctuation, and composition. This training becomes of 
value whatever college course may be built upon it. 

The gain which would come to our colleges by the encouragement in 
the high school of courses that make their appeal to the live interests 
of real boys and girls is clearly brought out in the reply of Dean Daven- 
port of the University of Illinois and in his valuable book, "Education 
for EflQciency." 

6 



Probably as many students fail in college from a lack of determina* 
tion and aim, as from a lack in quantity of preparation along estab- 
lished lines, and consequently a reorganization of secondary education 
that will assist boys and girls to get a purpose in life before leaving 
the high school will help the college in many ways. 

Fourth. While it may be true that the newer subjects for which we 
seek recognition in many cases are not as well taught as the older 
subjects, still we believe that the way to raise the standard is to hold 
out to the schools the incentive that these subjects will be accepted 
just as rapidly as the work comes up to a high standard in each par- 
ticular school. In this way the school will be encouraged and not hin- 
dered, Boards of Education will more readily improve the equipment 
and employ capable teachers for these subjects, and the students will 
not be overcrowded in the attempt to carry the new subjects in addition 
to the full amount of the older subjects. 

CONCLUSION. 

In view of the fact that the high school itself is confronted by new 
and difficult problems the solution of which is of the greatest impor- 
tance to the community, it certainly seems not unreasonable that the 
High School should ask of the College all the co-operation possible in 
order that working together they may advance the best interests of the 
educational system for the benefit of all concerned. 

Even though there may be fears that the results temporarily may 
in some cases be somewhat unsatisfactory judged from the older 
standards of set and finished results, yet in the interests of the enthu- 
siasm which comes in meeting new conditions and from the satisfac- 
tion which arises in solving new problems, a quality for which the 
American people is distinguished, we issue this pamphlet in the hope 
that the College may make the modifications needed by the High School. 

CLARENCE D. KINGSLEY, Chairman 
WILLIAM McANDREW 
ELLEN R. RUSHI\IORE 
JAMES SULLIVAN 
JAMES F. WILSON 

Committee on Conference with the Colleges. 
Address of the Chairman, 
400 Fourth Street, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Three sections of the National Education Association, at the annual 
meeting July 1910, passed resolutions upon the urgent need for the 
revision of college entrance requirements. These resolutions are 
given on the last pages of this pamphlet. 



STATEMENT 



OF THE 

HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS ASSOCIATION 

ON THK ' 

ARTICULATION OF HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 
The Reorganization of Secondary Education 

We believe that the interests of the forty thousand boys and girls 
who annually attend the nineteen high schools of this city cannot be 
wisely and fully served under present college entrance re- 
quirements. Our experience seems to prove the existence of a wide 
discrepancy )Detween "preparation for life" and "preparation ^fox 
college" as defined by college entrance requirements. 

So long as this discrepancy exists, both the child and society suffer, 
for the following two reasons: 

First: — Every attempt to divide high school students into two classes 
and to prepare one class for college and the other class for life is un- 
satisfactory. Many of those being "prepared for college" drop out 
of school without proper education for citizenship and without the 
industrial or commercial efficiency which society rightly demands the 
tax-supported high school should develop. Those being "prepared for 
life" include many who, later in their course, would go to college if the 
work already done were recognized by the colleges. 

Second: — The attempt to prepare the student for college under the 
present requirements and at the same time to teach him such other 
subjects as are needed for life is unsatisfactory. Under these con- 
ditions the student often has too much to do. The quality of all his 
work is likely to suffer. The additional subjects are slighted because 
they do not count for admission to college. In such a course it is 
impossible for the student to give these subjects as much time and 
energy as social conditions demand. 

For these reasons we desire to call your attention to the entrance 
requirements of Clark College. This college accepts the graduates of 
any New England public high school or of any other high school with 
equivalent standard. They report that the results are satisfactory to 
the college. May we ask what, in your opinion, would be the objections, 
if any, to the acceptance by your college, of the graduates of the high 
schools of New York City? Such a definition of entrance requirements 
would secure to the college a four years' preparatory course and would 
enable the high school to perform its function as a tax-supported 
institution. Under the present method of defining entrance require- 
ments, students who have not completed our courses of study repeatedly 
gain admission to college, often to the weakening of both college and 
high school. 

8 



If this departure seems too radical, may we call your attention to 
the following statements and recommend the modifications in present 
entrance requirements which seem to us most urgent? There are 
seven distinct lines of work which we believe essential to a well- 
rounded high school course; to wit, language, mathematics, history and 
civics, science, music, drawing, and manual training. Girls must be 
taught household science and art. Moreover, we believe that the 
twentieth century demands that the high schools should not cast all 
students in the same mold; that the amount of science and manual 
training which is sufficient for one student is utterly inadequate for 
another; and that a training for business may be given in the high 
school which will be as cultural and as respectable as any other course. 
To enable the high schools to adapt secondary education to the varying 
needs of different students in such a manner as to meet the diverse 
demands of the professions, of industry, and of commerce, progress 
seems to us to require 

(a) the reduction in the number of so-called "required" subjects, 

together with 

(b) the recognition of all standard subjects, as electives. 
The specified entrance requirement of two foreign languages, the 

meager electives in science, and the absence of recognition for drawing, 
music, household science and art, shopwork, commercial branches, and 
civics and economics, constitute the chief diffiulty. 

We should like to see it possible for a student upon entering the 
high school to choose Latin or German or French; to confine his work 
in foreign language, during his high school course, to one such language 
in case the remainder of his time is required for other subjects;' and 
to find at the end of his high school course that he has met the foreign 
language requirements of whatever college he may choose to enter. 
We should like to see no discrimination against Latin for the course 
leading to the B. S. degree, so that students choosing any language 
may enter the B. S. course. 

We should like to see the following subjects recognized by college 
entrance credits: 

Music, 1 unit; mechanical and freehand drawing, each 14 to 1 unit; 
joinery, pattern making, forging, machine shop practice, each y^ to 1 
unit; household chemistry, botany, zoology, physiography, applied 
physics, and advanced chemistry, each 1 unit; modern history, 1 unit; 
civics and economics, each 1/0 to 1 unit; household science and art, 2 
units; and commercial geography, commercial law, stenography and 
typewriting, elementary bookkeeping, advanced bookKeeping, and ac- 
counting, each 1/0 to 1 unit. 

A recent study of entrance requirements shows that many colleges 
are already requiring only one foreign language for admission, and 
that many of the above subjects have received recognition. 



REPLIES 

ARRANGED BY STAFES 



CONNECTICUT 

FLAVEL S. LUTHER, LL. D., President Trinity College. 

I have received your letter of May 18th with the accompanying 
circular. I fully appreciate your position. Please understand, how- 
ever that, in what follows, I express only my personal opinions, with 
which I do not believe many college faculties would coincide. 

I agree with you fully that the present situation is intolerable. 
I agree with almost everything in your circular except, perhaps, the 
assignment of numerical values to a specific list of subjects. It seems 
to me that what the colleges ought to want is this — some process 
whereby they may be assured that candidates entering college have 
reached such a stage of intellectual maturity and training that they 
are capable of undertaking college work, under college methods of 
teaching, with a fair prospect of success. In the old days Freshmen 
entering college went on with the studies which they had been pursu- 
ing in school, and the quantitative requirements were reasonable, per- 
haps inevitable. To-day the situation has been entirely changed. In 
Trinity College, for example, there is no subject taught, except Latin , 
and Mathematics, which is not begun in college; that is to say, there 
are only these two subjects for which any specific training is necessary 
beyond Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Of course, it is proper to 
point out that Physics, Civil Engineering, and some other subjects, do 
require a further Mathematical preparation. Greek, French, Italian, \ 
Spanish, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Economics, Philosophy, \ 
etc., etc., are or may be begun in our institution. 

Again, then, it appears that what we want is some reasonable con- 
fidence that our students may begin these studies and go on with them 
rapidly and successfully, of course with the understanding that they 
may pick up some of these subjects at such an advanced stage as their 
preparation may justify. I do not believe that it makes very much 
difference what boys and girls study in the high school so far as their 
college career is concerned, provided they study hard and secure suf- 
ficient intellectual development and training to enable them to do some 
kind of work appropriate to the college age and the college courses. 

An ideal arrangement to my mind would be one whereby a very, very 
large list of high schools and preparatory schools should be prepared 
under competent authority, with the understanding that these schools 
might send their students to any college in the country simply upon 

10 



certificate of graduation. Among other advantages this plan would 
result in the saving of practically a year of each candidate's life, now 
devoted to preparation for formal and highly unsatisfactory examina- 
tions. I believe that we shall come to some such plan as this, sooner 
or later. 

CHARLES W. DEANE, Ph.D., City Superintendent, Bridgeport. 

I consider the ideas set forth in it sound, and would be glad to see 
them prevail. 

CHARLES B. JENNINGS, City Superintendent, New London. 

It is high time, it seems to me, that the colleges of the country 
abandoned their time-honored practice and custom of prescribing a cer- 
tain cut and dried examination that all applicants must pass before 
entering college. Without any desire to criticize, I have felt for a num- 
ber of years that the colleges have not responded as much as the lower 
schools to the modern trend of public opinion in regard to education. 
They will all come into line eventually, for they mean right. It is 
simply the inertia of long continued custom. I am heartily in favor 
of the plan, as outlined, which you send to me. 

B. W. TINKER, City Superintendent, Waterbury. 

For a long time I have felt that the colleges were making unnecessary 
restrictions in regard to ''preparation," The number of required sub- 
jects is so great that if the work of preparation is not begun immed- 
iately upon entering high school, it is almost always necessary for the 
pupils to spend five years or more in such preparation. Too much 
attention is paid to the amount of matter covered, and too little to 
how it is covered. It ought to be a question of ability. I am heartily 
in sympathy with the work you are undertaking. 

EDWARD H. GUMBART, Ph.D., Principal, Norwalk High School, 

South Norwalk. 

I heartily agree with the sentiments expressed. Please count me in 
to support any movement to carry out such a reorganization of sec- 
ondary education as you have proposed. 

JOHN P. GUSHING, Head Master, New Haven High School, 
New Haven. 

Your articulation of high school and college is too liberal for me. 



11 



ILLINOIS 

HARRY PRATT JUDSON, LL,D., President University of Chicago. 

I am much interested in your statement. It hardly needs referring 
to the faculty of the University of Chicago, as we have been for some 
time very nearly on the basis indicated. In my opinion a student who 
has gone through the four years' course in a high school of recognized 
good quality ought to be admitted to college, and the college curriculum 
.ought to be adjusted so as to permit such student to find suitable work. 

ABRAM W. HARRIS, LL. D., President Northwestern University, 

Evanston. 

I was for eight years President of the University of Maine. I have 
now been for four years President of Northwestern University, and in 
between I was for five years principal of the Jacob Tome Institute, 
which contained a boys' boarding school of high school grade. My 
Tome experience gave me knowledge of the problem you are consid- 
ering, and I sympathize fully with your purposes. 

When at Maine I brought into use admission by certificate, which 
required, (1) graduation from a four-year high school, and (2) the 
satisfactory completion of certain specified studies that made up ap- 
proximately one-third of the high school course, and (3) a definite 
recommendation of the principal that the candidate was, in his judg- 
ment, fitted for the course he was to undertake. 

This system was intended to leave large liberty in developing the 
high school course to those who knew local conditions best, namely, 
the principals. It was intended to establish sympathetic and cordial 
relations with the principals. The plan was eminently successful, 
and under it the standard of scholarship constantly improved. Stu- 
dents who completed the required studies, but had not completed a 
high school course, were allowed to take examinations and were ad- 
mitted if their ranks were thoroughly satisfactory. The number of 
such candidates M-as small, and only a small proportion passed, al- 
though occasionally a very good man was admitted whose prepara- 
tion had been irregular. 

Northwestern University has recently modified its admission re- 
quirements for the College of Liberal Arts, with the express intention 
of accomplishing the results you desire. 

EDMUND J. JAMES, LL.D., President University of Illinois. 

I do not suppose the University of Illinois would make any objection 
to accepting the graduates of the high schools of New York City for 
matriculation in the University. There are certain fundamental sub- 

13 



jects varying with the course chosen, which we have to require be- 
cause the knowledge of these subjects is a technical requirement for 
success in the course. Otherwise I believe you will find the University 
of Illinois in full sympathy with the general proposition of your com- 
munication. 



H. A. HOLLISTER, High School Visitor, University of Illinoi*. 

President James, of the University,' has just sent to me your letter 
of May 30th with a request that I underake to reply. I have read with 
interest your circular on "Articulation of High School and College." 
It seems to me that the general position taken by your committee in 
regard to these matters is fully justified by the situation. 

The University of Illinois has long exercised a liberal attitude in 
regard to electives. Foreign language work, for instance, has been 
prescribed only for the College of Literature and Arts, and even in 
this case no particular language has been prescribed for admission. A 
wide range of electives in science and history has characterized our 
attitude toward secondary schools. More recently we have broadened 
out still more by introducing in our list of electives for admission 
manual training, commercial work, domestic science, and agriculture. 
With the exception of work in manual training, we have had little 
experience, as yet, with these new subjects. We are just assigning 
credit to a limited group of high schools for the first time this spring. 
In the case of manual training work, the experience thus far has been 
very satisfactory. There seems to have been no indication of any 
depreciation in the quality of preparation offered by students who have 
taken advantage of this subject as an elective. We do not anticipate 
any difficulty with regard to other new subjects mentioned above. 

One of the most serious difficulties we have, however, in adjusting 
credits with reference to these subjects is the comparative lack of uni- 
formity in the nature and grade of work offered by the high school. 
These difficulties we are undertaking to overcome through a conference 
of high school teachers which meets annually here at the University. 
In these conferences we invite representative high school people to 
discuss with us standards and unit definitions with regard to all en- 
trance subjects, and thus far we have found it possible to base our 
requirements on the definitions agreed to by these conferences. In this 
way we hope gradually to be able to establish these new subjects on a 
basis of equality as to subject matter, dealing in such a way as to make 
the accrediting of them as simple as that of the standard high school 
subjects. 

In this connection, it may be of interest to call attention to the fact 
that in our experience in dealing with high schools, it seems much 

13 



more difficult to get teachers as well equipped for the teaching of 
these newer branches as those who teach the older academic subjects. 
One does not have to seek very far to find reasons for this. Very few 
institutions are really prepared to train teachers with adequate schol- 
arship attainments for the teaching of the manual arts, domestic 
science, commercial subjects, or agriculture. If you happen to get 
hold of a recent publication by me entitled "High School Administra- 
tion," D. C. Heath & Co., you will find' in it a chapter dealing with the 
relation of the high school to colleges and universities, in which I have 
tried to explain the situation, especially with reference to the accredit- 
ing of subjects more modern and practical in character. 

I think you will agree with me that is is quite desirable that we 
proceed with some deliberation in undertaking to standardize these 
subjects which are now calling for recognition. This need is probably 
not so much felt in New England and New York as it is in the Middle 
West where our growth is more recent and where our development 
is rapid. However this may be, I feel sure that the ultimate aim and 
purpose of our colleges and universities should be fully as broad as 
that indicated in your circular on the subject of "College Entrance." 

EUGENE DAVENPORT, Dean of College of Agriculture, University of 

Illinois. 

First, let me say that I am glad to give this opinion for what it is 
worth, though I do not pose as an educational expert. The little 
book, "Education for Efficiency," was an outpouring of my own experi- 
ence in acting as a godfather to a new subject trying to blaze its way 
jtnto good academic society. I would be the last to degrade the high 
standards of this society, but, on the other hand, I have contended 
strenuously that when a new member comes along, he ought to be 
admitted. 

The point you raise, however, involves even a larger question in 
academic policy, and yet I find myself in thorough sympathy with the 
position taken by the teachers of the high schools. To me the high 
school is par excellence the educational center of the community in 
which the great bulk of the young people will receive all the training 
they will ever get for the life that they will pursue, and that very 
generally they will find their lives not far removed from the vicinity 
of the school. The matter you mention is fundamental in that it is 
impossible to determine at any time which individuals will ultimately 
go to college and which will not, and therefore the training of the 
two in this respect must be identical, all of which means that the 
colleges and universities must "hitch on" (a good agricultural phrase) 
to the high schools the best they may, or else the high schools will 
be distorted into nothing but preparatory schools for college to the 

14 



vast detriment of the mass of students who will never see the college 
for which they were supposedly prepared. 

This University publishes a list of subjects which would be accepted 
for credit, and while it does not announce that it will accept for credit 
anything and everything that is taught in any school, yet it puts 
into this list every new subject that is offered in the high schools 
as soon as this subject is even reasonably well taught. For example, 
we now accept for admission in this University : Agriculture, one to 
two units; Business Law, one-half unit; Domestic Science, one unit; 
Manual Training, one to two units, etc. Foreign language is required 
for admission only in the College of Literature and Arts. However, 
foreign language is practically required for graduation in all the 
colleges. Certain substitutions may be made in the Colleges of Agri- 
culture and Engineering, but at considerable additional labor on the 
part of the student. 

This all means, I think, that we are perfectly ready to accept both 
information and training that come out of certain new subjects and 
accept them in full value for college entrance. I think our experience 
is that we do not get in some of these new subjects the same degree 
of academic training that can be brought with some of the older and 
better established studies like language and mathematics, but we do 
get, on the other hand, a lively interest, a directness and an inclination 
to engage in actual problems of life, which is far less assured with 
those subjects whose subject matter deals largely with the past and 
whose atmosphere is decidedly ancient. It is, you see, the deliberate 
purpose of this University to meet the high schools on their own 
ground. It is true some of the schools complain of University domi- 
nance, but that is rather in a quantitative than in a qualitative sense 
and arises from our attempt to deal with a large number of schools 
of a varying degree of efficiency. So far as subject matter is con- 
cerned, however, we are ready to accept anything which the schools 
do and do well. 

Our experince is, so far as I am able to state it, that we gain in the 
matter of interest in life problems and ability to solve them far more 
than we lose in academic finish. There is no doubt that pure scholar- 
ship in the old sense of the term can best be developed with old and 
finished subjects. On the other hand, the modern American is to be 
made principally out of new subjects, finished off, so to speak, with 
the old ones. We try, therefore, to combine the two and keep as close 
as possible to the life and heart of the people. 

All this is only saying in a round-about way that my interest is 
entirely with the high schools in their desire to so conduct their 
affairs as to serve the varied communities which support them, and 
it will remain there so long as they conscientiously do this work. 
When they abandon this high purpose and serve only as preparatory 

15 



schools for colleges, I shall lose my interest in them, believing that 
they have sacrificed their rights as they have their opportunities. 

PROFESSOR OTIS W. CALDWELL, University of Chicago. 

Your statement is fine and represents the attitude that is being 
taken by many of our progressive high schools in the Central States. 

The High School has come to perform a function that makes it an 
autonomous body. It is now necessary for the High School to con- 
sider its own problems almost independently of the College and 
University. High Schools need to educate for general efficiency, and 
pupils who go to College need this kind of training quite as much as 
those who do not go. The lack of industrial and social perspective 
on the part of college graduates should be corrected by a High School 
education which deals with those matters that are of the greatest 
value to the largest number. 

PROFESSOR C. RIBORG MANN, University of Chicago. 

I am very much interested in this question and consider your 
statement the best that I have yet seen on the subject. There is a 
growing sentiment here at the University of Chicago in favor of the 
ideas which you present. The Federation of Secondary School Teachers, 
an association of which I am president, has a committee working on 
this same subject. There are about 220^0 members of the associations 
in the Federation scattered all over the country. 

J. STANLEY BROWN, Superintendent and Principal, Joliet Township 
High School, Joliet. 

I congratulate your committee on the work done, and assure you 
that all movements looking to the complete autonomy of the public 
high school will be welcomed by the teaching bodies of the whole 
country. 

JAMES E. ARMSTRONG, Principal Englewood High School, Chicago. 

I think we have a decided advantage over your schools in the 
east in regard to college entrance requirements. I am in entire accord 
with the point mentioned in the circular on "Articulation of High 
School and College." I think you will recognize that we are a long 
stride ahead of the eastern schools in all these relations. We have 
an association of all the colleges, universities, and secondary schools 
in the North Central States. A committee of twenty or thirty people 
from these various institutions make a definition of each unit of the 

16 



college requirements for admission; and in this way the high school 
men have their say as to what subjects should be accepted by the col- 
leges from the high school graduates. 



INDIANA 

WINTHROP E. STONE, Ph.D., President Purdue University, Lafayette. 

At Purdue we are entirely in sympathy with the recognition, as 
preparation for college, of a wide range of high school subjects and 
we are chiefly concerned that these subjects should be seriously and 
thoroughly taught in some properly arranged sequence and relation, 
believing that when the high school pupil has mastered them, he has 
in effect gained the necessary mental power and direction to enable 
him to do collegiate work. 

Since, however, Purdue is a scientific and technological institution, 
we find it necessary to prescribe certain preparatory studies in order 
that our entering students shall be able to go on with our own courses. 
Of the fifteen units required for admission, ten are thus prescribed, 
namely, English, foreign language, mathematics, science, and history. 
The remaining five units which the applicant must submit may be 
made up of subjects chosen in the departments of English, foreign 
language, mathematics, science, history, shop work, drawing, domes- 
tic science, agriculture, and commercial courses in varying weights. 

It is our endeavor in arranging these requirements to meet school 
conditions and to accomplish what is referred to in your circular; 
namely, the reduction of required subjects and the recognition of all 
standard subjects as electives. 

M. H. STUART, Assistant Principal Manual Training High School, 

Indianapolis. 

Your letter and circular regarding college entrance requirements 
which was mailed to Superintendent Kendall, has been forwarded to 
me for reply. Your circular is very interesting and bears directly on 
the vital high school difficulty. Your first suggestion — that the colleges 
admit all of the graduates from standard high schools — would, of 
course, be satisfactory to us and would enable the high school to meet 
the demands of the people. I fear, however, that the college people 
might consider this a little too radical, since the high schools are now 
developing such a varied course of study. So, from a practical point 
of view, I am inclined toward your second suggestion of reducing the 
number of required subjects and giving recognition to all of the 
standard lines of work represented in the modern city high school. 

17 



This, it seems to me, is perfectly feasible and in line with the future 
development of high school work. I would favor reducing the required 
subjects to English, mathematics, and one foreign language, including 
among the elective subjects, all those mentioned in your circular. In 
brief, I am very enthusiastic regarding your second plan for solving 
this much discussed difficulty. Any assistance that we may be able 
to give you in this line will be gladly contributed. 



MARYLAND 

EUGENE A. NOBLE, LL. D., President Goucher College, Baltimore. 

I am not in favor of having the colleges prescribe, and command, 
and rigidly determine, just what work the secondary schools must do. 
I have objected to that consistently. It is entirely unfair for any 
college to assume that its requirements must give character to all the 
work done in the secondary schools. This point is definite in my 
mind: That in some measure the secondary schools must break away 
from what the old colleges imposed upon them as necessary aspects 
of activity. 

While I should not be willing to forecast' the educational future, 
yet I am inclined to believe that what we shall have to do is this: 
To have a number of high schools that pay comparatively little atten- 
tion to college preparation, and some other schools that devote them- 
selves to that. I do not believe the colleges will admit students whose 
work has not been systematically arranged and conducted before they 
are admitted as Freshmen. This being so, I can see nothing for it 
but to have a number of schools devote themselves to college prepara- 
tion. 

What Clark College is trying to do, I suppose we are all trying to do, 
to determine in advance the ability of a student to do the work of a 
Freshman year, that is to admit the students "on trial." That in itself 
is not a bad plan. As far back as five years ago I urged such a plan 
upon one of the best New England colleges. I should not be averse to 
having it tried in this institution from schools that were on an 
approved list to receive students who have graduated and perhaps had 
made a grade of something higher than mere passing; then let their 
work for the first half year in college determine whether they were able 
to carry college tasks successfully. Perhaps you do not know that we 
have a list of alternative entrance requirements, a plan which was 
adopted in order that admission to our Freshmen class might adjust 
itself to the inequalities of preparation in different parts of the country. 
We have held that it is the business of the college to adjust its re- 

18 



quirements for admission in such a way that existing inequalities in 
different parts of the country shall be met. We believe that entirely 
too much deference has been paid to the rigid system originating in 
New England and we should be glad to see certain changes and modifi- 
cations made in order to satisfy the educational requirements of the 
whole country. 

So far as the work of this college is concerned, and the work as I 
imagine it of some other colleges, it would be absurd for us to accept 
handicraft, household sciences, bookkeeping, machine shop practice, 
pattern making, forging, stenography and typewriting, etc., for en- 
trance. I could wish that both mechanical and freehand drawing were 
recognized, and if there were some way to determine the unit value 
of music, I should like to see music recognized. To determine the 
unit value of some of the subjects in your list seems to me to be nearly 
impossible. If all the high schools within our territory taught the 
same subject with the same sincerity of method, it would not be a 
difficult matter for the college to determine what it ought to receive 
for entrance. 

EDWARD H. GRIFFIN, Dean of the College Faculty, Johns Hopkins 
University, Baltimore. 

We full}^ appreciate the importance of this subject, and the difficulties of 
the problem which it presents. It is now too late in the year to invite an 
expression of opinion by our academic staff, but I shall be glad to bring the 
subject up for discussion next year. 

I am personally in favor of accepting properly guarded certificates, from 
properly accredited high schools, for admission to college. I am also in 
favor of accommodating the entrance requirements, as far as possible, to the 
needs of the high school. But I do not see how "vocational subjects" — if 
I may use that term — can be substituted for the standard subjects, to any 
verv considerable extent. 



MASSACHUSETTS 

CHARLES W. ELIOT, LL.D., President Emeritus Harvard University. 

I have read the statement regarding the articulation of high school 
and college which you were good enough to send me under date of 
June fourth. It discusses a very large question in public secon»dary 
education, and I am free to confess that my own mind is not clear 
as to the best interests of the public high school. In Boston and Cam- 
bridge, where there have long been free Latin schools supported by 
taxation, the solution of the problem has been very different from that 
which your statement suggests; and of late years an active differenti- 



19 



ation in high schools has been going on, so that we now have three 
well-marked types of high schools. On the other hand, Harvard College 
already counts for admission physics, chemistry, civil government, 
anatomy, zoology and economics, freehand and projection drawing, 
astronomy, harmony and counterpoint, various kinds of shop work, and 
English and American history. On the whole, this is a more compre- 
hensive list than that which stands on the third page of your state- 
ment, — considering that Harvard College admits no girls. 

The weak points of your statement seem to me to be the follow- 
ing: (1) You call attention to the entrance requirements of Clark 
College. These are the lowest and most enfeebling for secondary 
schools ever made in New England. (2) You approve the certificate 
method of entrance, which has had a most deplorable effect on the 
quality of secondary schools all over the country, and has distinctly 
'lowered the quality of the entering classes of the American universities 
in general. (3) You recommend that a youth whose education is to 
be prolonged learn but one foreign language up to his nineteenth 
year. This doctrine flies in the face of all experience concerning the 
right age to learn the elements of foreign languages. The policy is 
right for children whose education is to stop at eighteen, or earlier; 
but it is utterly wrong for those whose education is to be prolonged. 
(4) You seem to sanction in your first paragraph the absurd antithesis 
between "preparation for life" and "preparation for college." "Prep- 
aration for life" in this sense means only that imperfect preparation 
which those can receive who must begin to earn money at eighteen 
years of age, or earlier. "Preparation for college" means preparation 
for a training subsequent to eighteen years of age, which may last 
from three to seven years. College education, in short, is much more 
truly and effectively preparation for life than any other form of edu- 
cation. 

I agree with you that the changes you advocate amount to a "re- 
organization of secondary edrcation"; but the essence of the re-organ- 
ization, in my opinion, will be differentiation among high schools and 
greater range of selection among studies for pupils. 

FREDERICK W. HAMILTON, D.D., President Tufts College. 

I doubt if any serious consideration can be given to your state- 
ment until next fall, owing to the pressure of matters incident upon 
the closing of the college year. Personally, I believe that a closer 
articulation between the high school and college is desirable, and I 
am personally much more in sympathy than are most of my colleagues 
on the Faculty with the specific changes you desire to make. I am 
by no means certain, however, that it is wise to attempt to lay out 
a high school course in such a way that it may hit any mark which 

20 



the shooter may make up his mind he would like to bring down after 
the projectile has left the gun. While I believe in a good deal of 
latitude in college entrance requirements and in the acceptance of 
well taught subjects of almost any kind for admission to college, it does 
seem to me quite clear that the aim of the high school education ought 
to ba fairly well determined upon at an early period of the course. 

It does seem to me that a boy who intends to be a bookkeeper im- 
mediately on graduation from the high school, may properly direct his 
high school course rather differently from a boy who intends to be a 
clergyman, or a lawyer, or an electrical engineer. In a word, I find 
myself agreeing with your definite conclusions much more fully than 
with your premises. 

HARRY A. GARFIELD, LL.D., President Williams College. 

I enclose herewith a letter from the Dean of our Faculty whose 
position as Chairman of our Committee on Admissions, and also as a 
member of the College Entrance Examination Board, gives his judgment 
especial weight. I am in accord with his opinion. So far from aband- 
oning the work in language, I should much prefer that students enter- 
ing college were through with the beginners' work in Latin and both 
modern languages, or with Latin and Greek and one modern language, 
but I realize that, at the present time, it would appear to put upon the 
schools too great a burden to have accomplished so much. 

FREDERICK C. FERRY, Sc. D., Dean Williams College. 

It seems to me that "preparation for college" and "preparation for 
life" are not necessarily separate and incompatible. I am not at all 
clear that the boy or girl who is to go no further than the high school 
seriously needs "for life" courses in drawing, advanced chemistry, 
stenography and typewriting, rather than Latin and Greek. It Is my 
own belief that the list of subjects which we prescribe for admission 
to college are at least equal in their preparation for life to the more 
modern and vocational course which the high school people propose. 

Manifestly Williams College cannot undertake to carry all possible 
^subjects, and it should undertake to continue, it seems to me, through 
the Freshman year the courses which have been taken during the 
latter years in the high school. If, then, Williams College were to 
ctccept any and every graduate from the high schools of New York 
City, it would have to be equipped with a sufficient teaching staff 
to give, in the Freshman year, a far wider range of subjects than is at 
present possible. Plainly, a college like this is warranted in saying 
to the New York City high schools that, since we offer only the degree 
in Arts, we will receive here those boys who have completed the 
classical course in the high school. Those who have completed a science 

21 



course of the old-fashioned sort can go to institutions where the degree 
of Bachelor of Science is offered. Others may perhaps go to the 
business college, or to the schools of finance. It does not seem to me 
that any particular small college should be asked to receive students 
presenting so great a variety of lines of preparation. 

The argument that only one foreign language should be carried in 
the high school course seems to me particularly weak. Those are much 
better days for doing work in foreign languages than the college days, 
and the educated man of the present time must have studied more 
than a single foreign language, unless education ^'s to be interpreted in 
a light far different from that of the present-day college. It seems to 
me that a program would be of greater value which should confine the 
boys, who are going to classical colleges, entirely to English, Greek, 
Latin, History, Mathematics, and French or German, rather than to 
include any of the long list of subjects presented on the sheet from 
the High School Teachers Association. Household science, art, shop 
work, commercial branches, elementary bookkeeping, advanced book- 
keeping, etc., etc., seem to me to have no appropriate place in a scheme 
of education leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. They should 
be required of none of the students, I think, who are going to college, 
and the time necessary for a thorough grounding in three foreign 
languages and mathematics should be free from trespass on the part 
of such subjects. 

KENYON L. BUTTERFIELD, President Massachusetts Agricultural 
College, Amherst. 

I have referred your printed circular concerning the articulation of 
high school and college to Professor William R. Hart, our Professor of 
Agricultural Education, and a member of our Committee on Instruction, 
and am asking him to have the matter brought up for discussion and 
eventually report to you. 

My personal view is that in a college like this, supported at State 
expense, we ought to articulate very intimately with all the high 
schools of the State. As a matter of fact, our present entrance re- 
quirements enable us to do this fairly well. We do not try to dictate to 
the high schools in Massachusetts — indeed, we cannot. 

I find myself inclined to sympathize with those who hold that the 
four-year high school course, passed with credit, is sufficient entrance 
for college. I see two or three practical difficulties, however. One 
is that many of the new subjects are not at present the equivalent of 
some of the older subjects in educational value, simply because they 
are not so well organized nor so well taught. Again, in a course like 
ours, which is made up of required subjects during the first two years, 
and which leads to vocational work in the last two years, there might 

22 



be some difficulty in arranging work for men, some of whom enter 
with one subject up and others deficient in it. 

For instance, we require that our Freshmen shall have had a year 
of chemistry. It isn't going to be easy to handle a group of men, 
some of whom have had perhaps two years of chemistry, some one 
year, and some none. This difficulty is not found in the university 
with a wide-open elective system. 



DAVID SNEDDEN, State Commissioner of Education. 

It gives me great pleasure to learn that so large a high school 
system as that of New York promises to take concerted action in this 
matter. The present situation is most objectionable, and especially in 
the restrictive effects it is having on true high school development. I 
trust that in the near future the Massachusetts high schools will de- 
velop concerted action with regard to admission requirements and that 
the high schools themselves will in the future insist on saying what 
they can accomplish in four years of genuine work, leaving the colleges 
free to accept or reject their recommendations. 

Of course my acquaintance with Western institutions makes me 
favor in general an accrediting system whereby the school as a whole, 
rather than its teaching particular lines of work, should be made a 
basis of its power to grant recommendations for entrance to college. 
The time may not yet be ripe for the developing of an accrediting 
system here, but I think it is much more possible than many critics 
assume. 



WILLIAM ORR, Deputy State Commissioner of Public Instruction. 

The results of my experience and observation warrant me in giv- 
ing hearty endorsement to the propositions you make as to the nature 
and scope, aim and purpose of high school work. It is a hopeful sign 
that high school teachers are asserting themselves and insisting that 
the high school itself should regulate and determine its courses and 
methods of instruction. When the public secondary school teachers 
of the country take the same stand that the high school teachers of 
New York have taken in this matter, the vexing question of the relation 
of the high school to the college will be summarily settled and no 
such question will exist. 

STRATTON D. BROOKS, City Superintendent, Boston, 

The proposed requirements for admission to college as outlined 
in the circular sent me inclosed with your letter of May 28, are prac- 

23 



tically identical with the requirements as they have been in operation 
in the University of Illinois for several years. While I was high 
school inspector for that University, I had occasion to know that these 
requirements worked very satisfactorily, both from the point of view 
of the high schools and from the point of view of the University. I 
have no doubt that even New England may in time see the reasonable- 
ness of your request. 

SHERBURN C. HUTCHINSON, City Superintendent, Andover. 

I am in full sympathy with your statement. I believe that the 
tendency is in the direction indicated and I hope to see the movement 
hastened. 

WILBUR F. GORDY, City Superintendent, Springfield. 

I have read with the keenest interest the statements of your asso- 
ciation. I heartily endorse the point of view taken by your com- 
mittee. I believe you are right in calling for what, as you say, is 
practically a re-organization of secondary education. The time has 
come when the colleges must modify their entrance requirements in 
the interests of a saner and broader preparation for life. 

FREDERIC ALLISON TUPPER, Head Master Brighton High School, 

Brighton, Boston. 

1. I believe that every course in the high school should be given 
a value for admission to college. 

2. I believe that the quality of the work done should have great 
weight. 

3. I believe that fewer subjects 'better prepared would be advan- 
tageous to college, school, and all concerned. 

ALBERT PERRY WALKER, Headmaster, Girls High School, 
Boston. 

I have been much interested in your circular on articulation in 
high school and college, and the reorganization of secondary educa- 
tion. In general, I agree with the statements therein made. 

In reply to your question, "What would be the objections to the 
acceptance by colleges of high school graduates," I would say that I 
believe that principle should be applied only to high schools approved 
by the colleges after special investigation, according to a system 
such as prevails among the New England colleges and high schools. 

I believe in the reduction of the number of required subjects. I do 
not believe in the recognizing of "Standard Subjects" for admission 

24 



to college. I believe that college requirements should be confined to 
subjects necessary to the pursuance of an advanced education. For 
that reason, I do not believe that such subjects as household science 
or stenography and typewriting should be recognized for college ad- 
mission. What I do believe is that the essential subjects should alone 
be required, and the college requirements should be so limited as to 
demand only one-half or two-thirds of the pupil's high school time, 
leaving him free to spend the rest of the time on any subject he 
chooses, whether it be stenography or household science or music. 
I feel especially strongly that it is undesirable ta require more 
than one foreign language because, in my judgment, the thorough- 
going, continuous, intensive study of a single language for four years 
bears much more fruit than the distribution of the pupil's time 
among several languages. 

CHARLES I. RICE, Director of Music, Worcester, Mass. 
and President of the Music Section of the N. E. A. 

The statement of the case is admirable and to the point. The 
music end of it has received a good deal of attention during the past 
five years in the annual meetings of the Eastern Educational Con- 
ference, which are held in the different colleges, and it is encouraging 
that your High School Teachers' Association is so fully interested. 
I am glad you mention Clark College. President Sanford made a mas- 
terly plea in his inaugural address for this liberal attitude, and unless 
I am much mistaken most of the distinguished body of college presi- 
dents who attended the inaugural ceremonies envied him his freedom 
from the trammels of cut-and-dried traditions. 



MICHIGAN 

DAVID MACKENZIE, Principal Detroit Central High School, 

and President Secondary Department of the N. E. A. 

I am most heartily in favor of the movement toward the complete 
freedom of the High School. I shall be greatly interested in any action 
the Secondary Department may takej in the matter of freeing the 
High School from college denomination. 



MINNESOTA 

CYRUS NORTHROP, LL.D., President University of Minnesota. 

I received a few days ago your communication, and I have read 
it with interest and with substantial agreement with the views there- 
in expressed. As showing the attitude of the University of Minnesota, 

25 



T will say that of the subjects which you enumerate as desirable to be 
recognized by college entrance credits, Minnesota accepts without ques- 
tion, Botany, Zoology, Physiography, Modern History, Civics, Econom- 
ics, and Commercial Geography. Minnesota also accepts the following 
when the subjects named are part of a definite four year course of 
study: 

Mechanical and Free Hand Drawing. 

Carpentry, Pattern, Forging, Machine Shop Practice. 

Commercial Law. 

Stenography and Typewriting. 

Elementary Bookkeeping. 

Advanced Bookkeeping and Accounting. 

Household Science and Art. 
Not accepted: Music. 

"Applied Physics, Advanced Chemistry, and Household Chemistry" 
are not specifically named, but they are practically accepted under 
Household Science and Art, etc. 



MISSOURI 

HOWARD A. GASS, State Superintendent of Education. 

We have already made considerable progress along the lines you 
suggest in your letter. Nearly all of the first class western colleges 
accept work in manual training and domestic science, mechanical 
drawing, agriculture, etc. Some of them accept work in music and 
bookkeeping. I am very strongly in favor of the movement toward 
rationalizing courses of study for colleges and secondary schools. 

JAMES M. GREENWOOD, City Superintendent, Kansas City. 

I am heartily in sympathy with the movement to limit and to 
rationalize college entrance requirements, and to give notice that the 
high-school teachers, except for those pupils who expect to enter 
college or university, shall not be dominated by the scrappy bits of 
subjects which college committees formulate. The high schools exist 
for and within themselves, and not as fattening pens to prepare for 
college or university enrollment. The effect on the teaching in high 
schools is to narrow and restrict the work, because everything is cut 
and dried as requirements demand it shall be done, without regard 
to the needs of the vast majority who will never go to college. The 
motto of the high schools should be to fit for life first, and for college 
incidentally. 

26 



NEBRASKA 

SAMUEL AVERY, Ph.D., Chancellor University of Nebraska. 

Having received my education in the West and in German^?, it 
strikes me at first reading as incredible tliat there should be serious 
opposition to any of the suggestions which you make. In fact, it seems 
to me that the statement is one of the most comprehensive, sane, and 
practical reports on the subject that I have ever seen. I can most 
heartily endorse it practically in toto. 

E. C. BISHOP, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

I heartily approve the ideas set forth in your statement. You are on 
the right road to an adjustment which will mean much for better 
results in high school training and also for the encouragement of more 
high school graduates to continue their education. The University of 
Nebraska has already taken an advanced step in accreditment of all 
work well done in high schools, which I believe will better conditions 
to a great extent. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE 

E. W. BUTTERFIELD, Principal Dover High School. 

I agree thoroughly with your statements and believe that all standard 
high school subjects should be credited by the colleges. In particular, 
stenography, typewriting, and bookkeeping are with us so thoroughly 
established that they are in all ways an equivalent of subjects now 
recognized by the colleges. 

In New Hampshire advanced American history and civics is a re- 
quired study for all pupils of the senior year. It is a thorough course 
with daily recitations. We are very anxious that this should receive 
good college credit, and it has been so accepted by most of the colleges 
of our region. Smith, Wellesley, and Mt. Holyoke, however, refuse to 
accept it as yet as elementary. If we can in any way work with you 
in accomplishing the purpose of your resolutions you may look for our 
co-operation. 

NEW JERSEY 

ALEXANDER C. HUMPHREYS, LL.D., President Stevens Institute 
of Technology, Hoboken. 

We have no right to map out the general scheme of education with 
the college as the goal. In this connection, in spite of the fact that 

27 



the high schools are presumably preparing for college, we find many 
graduates from high schools who are not able to meet our require- 
ments, even in the fundamental studies. Personally, I would prefer, if it 
were necessary to make a choice, that an applicant for admission should come 
to us thoroughly grounded in the fundamentals even if this involved weak- 
ness in other subjects. 

J. M. GREEN, Principal New Jersey State Normal and Model Schools 

and President of the Association of Colleges and Preparatory 

Schools of the Middle States and Maryland. 

I am in full accord with your movement to bring about better articu- 
lation of the high school and the college. 

The natural educational condition is to have the student go from 
the high school course best adapted to him directly to a college in 
which the course is arranged with reference to the work he has already, 
taken up, and there should be the closest and most cordial meeting 
between the high school and the college in order to accomplish this 
end. 

I do not feel that the High School Teachers Associations are taking 
all conditions fully into account in their present mode of procedure. 
There are a number of colleges that are quite willing to comply with 
their conditions. It seems to me that the high schools should accept 
the proffer of these colleges and advise tneir pupils to go to them 
rather than hold off in an effort to bring all colleges to do what sonie 
can do. 

My own contact with the colleges has convinced me that each private 
college has its own particular problems to work out, problems involv- 
ing its sources of financial support, etc., and that very many of the 
colleges are not at liberty to do exactly what they might regard as 
educationally the best. 

I do not think the ready admission of high school graduates to the 
college courses worth while unless the colleges standardize and not 
receive students who do not come up to standard. 

A thorough knowledge of the conditions of the colleges will reveal 
the fact that there are many of them that are not at liberty to stand- 
ardize on their entrance conditions. This being the case it is fruitless 
for the time being to use an effort to have such colleges receive 
students from high schools who have covered a given course in which 
the commercial branches or any other branches other than those 
directly preparatory to college have played a part and are claiming 
recognition simply as educational values. 

It seems to me that the high school people ask that the colleges do 
something for them, and that when some college comes forward and 
says it will do it the high school people turn and say, "We will not 



accept your gift unless every one else comes to our conditions and 
does the same thing, no matter what local problems are in the way." 
This certainly is a great deal to expect, especially where the college 
is supported by private enterprise and is giving the student more 
than he pays for. 

Furthermore, it is true that the high schools feel the force of 
popular influence in their courses of study, but it is not always true 
that this popular influence should be accepted without modification. 
I recall very well when the popular influence was entirely against the 
study of foreign languages, the slogan being "Know your own language 
first." What would have been the result had the colleges yielded to tMs 
popular demand? 

There is much in the popular curriculum that is very valuable; there 
is that in it which is decidedly ephemeral, if we are to judge by the 
most reliable standards of education. 

CHARLES J. BAXTER, State Superintendent Public Instruction. 

This Department is heartily in sympathy with the work you are 
trying to do in regard to the regulation of high school requirements by 
colleges and will be glad to assist your organization in any way in 
our power. 

RANDALL SPAULDING, City Superintendent, Montclair. 

The above statement, and its main conclusions, command my 
hearty approval; also the approval of the Principal of the high school, 
Mr. H. W. Dutch, and the Vice-principal, Miss Elsie M. Dwyer. 

VERNON L. DAVEY, Superintendent, East Orange. 

In reply, I would say that I am heartily in sympathy with any 
movement which will tend to a wise modification of the entrance re- 
quirements of the colleges. 

While I am not certain that I should endorse the definite list of 
subjects and units named on page 3 of your circular, I am strongly 
of the opinion that credit should be given for almost any well planned 
and properly handled high school subject. I am also of the opinion 
that the college requirement of three languages besides English is un- 
wise and unprofitable and should be modified. 

NEW MEXICO 

JAMES E. CLARK, Territorial Superintendent Public Instruction. 

Allow me to say that I sympathize entirely with the movement for 
reorganization of secondary education, and I believe that you will find 
upon examination of the catalogue of the University of New Mexico, 



that the entrance requirements are practically such as you would like 
to see excepting in the matter of placing on the elective list the sub- 
ject of music. Great care is taken in admitting students offering some 
of the other subjects, but I believe it will be found that whenever 
subjects are found to have been well taught under capable instructors, 
credit is given also for such subjects towards admission. 

NEW YORK 

GEORGE P. BRISTOL, Chairman Committee on Relations to 
Secondary Schools, Cornell University. 

I hope that we may be able, working together, to make more pro- 
gress in the direction in which you are working. I assure you of my 
personal sympathy with the movement your committee represents. 

ADAM LEROY JONES, Chairman Committee on Undergraduate 
Admissions, Columbia Universty. 

As you are aware, we allow a wide range of choice among subjects to those 
who are candidates for admission to Columbia College. We should not be 
ready to accept all of the suggestions which your committee has made but 
we do regard them as valuable and we sincerely hope that the relations 
between the college and the secondary school will be such as to serve the 
best interests of both. 

JAMES M. TAYLOR, LL.D., President Vassar College. 

I regard this matter as of prime importance, and I shall ask the 
attention of the Faculty to it. 

CHARLES H. LEVERMORE, Ph.D., President Adelphi College, 

Brooklyn. 

It will not be possible for our Faculty to give serious consideration 
to the propositions contained in your circular before some time next 
fall. I believe that the formal action of the Faculty upon your sug- 
gestions is likely to be favorable. The regulations which you desire 
concerning entrance requirements in languages have been in force in 
this College ever since it was chartered. I am personally in favor of 
allowing credit for all subjects specified on the last page of your 
circular, and I only regret that you and your associates did not pro- 
pose a radical change in the present system of entrance requirements 
in English. 

CHARLES P. NORTON, Chancellor University of Buffalo. 

We are trying to get our collegiate department for the University 
of Buffalo, and hope to do so in the near future. In the meantime, 

30 



I may say that I heartily agree with the views expressed in your cir- 
cular letter. 

REV. E. L. CAREY, CM., President St. Johns College, Brooklyn. 

You will find that we credit for entrance many of the subjects 
mentioned in your statement. We would be quite willing to give 
reasonable credit for the remaining subjects, provided they were classed 
as electives. 

Without presuming to pronounce on the question of fact involved, 
may I venture to say that I do not admit a distinction between "prep- 
aration for college" and "preparation for life." Rational preparation 
for college is preparation for life. At best, however, preparation for 
college is an incomplete, and from a certain view point, an inadequate 
preparation for life. 

I hope the day will never come when one class of students will be 
prepared "for college," and another "for life." Prepare them all 
in a rational way for life and those who are fit will be adequately 
prepared for college. 

RUSH RHEES, President Rochester University. 

First, I am entirely convinced that college entrance requirements 
should be defined by the colleges in conjunction with the representa- 
tives of the secondary school and on the basis of a frank recognition 
of the proper function of the secondary schools. 

Secondly, I do not believe that the colleges can fulfill their mission 
in our educational system if the secondary schools adopt it as their 
aim to be exclusively finishing schools without regard to the purpose 
of the students to follow education further in a higher institution. 
Nor do I believe that the secondary schools will fulfill their proper 
function as tax supported institutions unless they clearly recognize 
as definite relation to the institutions above them as they do to the 
schools below them. The situation in Germany is distinctly to the 
point, for there gymnasium, real-gymnasium and ober-real-schule are 
definitely organized with a view to the preparation of students for 
work in universities. It may readily be regarded as unwise for our 
secondary schools to follow this German example, but J am con- 
vinced that it would be still more unwise for them to ignore the fact 
that secondary education holds a vital relation in subject matter as 
well as in extent to higher education. 

Thirdly, I do not believe that it would be advantageous in the 
Interests of our national education to confine the student's linguistic 
study in our public high schools to one foreign language pursued for 
four years. The high school period is the natural time for the ac- 

31 



quisition of languages and if students are to become acquainted with 
more than one foreign language as educated men and women it is 
important that they should begin that work at least as early as the 
high school period. 

Fourthly, many of the subjects mentioned by you as suitable to be 
recognized by the college for entrance credits have little or no sig- 
nificance, from the point of view of the college, as a preparatory train- 
ing. Many of them, however, have such significance, particularly for 
certain courses in college. I believe that the college should have an 
open mind with reference to every development of interest in the high 
schools and should be as liberal as possible in the extension of en- 
trance credit to high school subjects. It is increasingly clear to me, 
however, that preparation for college, whatever may be said concern- 
ing the preparation for life, can not properly be measured quantita- 
tively. Four years spent upon a very great variety of different sub- 
jects, each studied for one year or possibly less, do not have at all 
the same educational value from the point of view of preparation for 
later work that is furnished by the same length of time devoted to a 
smaller number of subjects each pursued for two or three or four 
years. The same consideration is true and is coming to be more and 
more clearly recognized of college education. Three years spent upon 
one subject, whether science or literature or history, is of vastly more 
value for education than three years spent upon three different sub- 
jects. 

The college might reasonably reduce its specific prescriptions for 
preparatory training, and leave a margin for the secondary schools 
to fill as they deem best. I think the college should demand a com- 
pleted secondary school course, including for any given college course 
what the college regards as an irreducible minimum of specific prepara- 
tion for that course. But that is far from your proposal. 

EDWARD E. HALE, JR., Secretary Education Committee, 
Union College. 

The committee considered the matter carefully, and with the full 
appreciation of many of the difficulties which the association feels in 
the correct articulation of school and college work. The committee did 
not feel, however, that it could consider definitely the question of 
admitting without examinations the graduates of the New York City 
high schools. Such a consideration would be largely theoretical, for 
few of our students come from New York City. 

The committee also found it impossible to agree with the views of 
the association in the matter of election or option at entrance. 
Although our entrance requirements recognize a certain amount of 



election in several of the courses, the committee felt itself quite un- 
ready for any statement of opinion upon the general question as 
outlined in your letter. 

ANDREW S. DRAPER, LL.D., State Commissioner of Education. 

The subject is one, as we all know, with endless ramifications, 
about which a great deal has been said, and more will be said, and I 
cannot therefore undertake in this connection to discuss details. I 
may say, however, that I have read your printed circular carefully, 
and in a general way I feel strongly sympathetic with the views of 
your committee. I think the colleges are too exacting in their re- 
quirements for admission, and particularly that they lay too much 
stress upon knowledge of what is in books and too little upon the power 
to do things. Moreover, I think that the colleges should receive the 
graduates of recognized high schools and give them their opportunity 
to show whether or not they can do college work. 

FRANK ROLLINS, Ph.D., Second Assistant Commissioner of Education. 

I am in sympathy with the general recommendations of the report 
of your committee, and I can ,see no reason why the colleges 
should not agree to accept for admission worthily accomplished work 
along any of the lines suggested in your report, provided, of course, 
that the colleges should still insist upon thorough and adequate prep- 
aration in certain subjects that are fundamental to the successful pur- 
suit of college work. Among these subjects, which would stand in the 
nature of absolute requirements, I should include English, elementary 
algebra, plane geometry, American history and civics, a foreign lan- 
guage, and at least one unit in science. With these as a foundation the 
colleges may well afford to permit a very wide range of electives in 
making up the rest of the entrance requirements. 

ARTHUR D. DEAN, Chief, Division of Trades Schools, New York 
State Education Department. 

I am primarily interested in the development of trades schools or courses. 
These have absolutely no reference to the college entrance requirements. I 
advocate separate industrial or trades schools, or at least separate and 
distinct courses within existing high schools. Industrial education is a 
system of education which is to be apart from any dominations of colleges. 
It should mean more than the introduction of shopwork or drawing in the 
existing high schools. There is a bigger question involved, that of the 
correlation of mathematics, English and history with industrial and com- 
mercial activites. Of course all pupils of industrial schools or courses 
should have mathematics, history and English, but the subject-matter 
should be of a different order. The mathematics of a milling machine has 

33 



greater disciplinary value to a bo}' that is vising a milling machine in a 
school shop than has the present mathematics when it is unrelated to the 
manual training that the boy may be taking. The same may be said of 
science work. ISote the development of Chemistry in the daily life of our 
people — the chemistry of soils, the kitchen, the shop, and compare the 
educational possibilities of such chemistry with the "alchemy" that we 
teach today. 

Personally I do not care where they put this industrial education. It may 
be in the high school, in a separate school or in a factory. The only point 
that needs consideration is so to work out the scheme that it will reach the 
pupils that need it and benefit them. I am simply interested in having boys 
and girls kept in school, given what they need, fitted for their work and 
sent into the world as more efiicient men and women. 

If the colleges will not give way to the needs of the high school situation, 
then let us have two courses in our high schools — one based on college 
requirements and the other based upon the requirements of industrial and 
commercial life, and once established, the latter course will have a healthy 
reaction upon the older course. 

WILLIAM H. MAXWELL, LL.D., City Superintendent, New York City. 

I endorse this statement issued by the High School Teachers Asso- 
ciation, and I congratulate your association on the position it has taken. 
I say this, however, without prejudice to my right to change my opin- 
ion on the details of your plan, should I see fit to do so on more mature 
consideration. 

I regret that your Association did not see fit to ask for a reduction 
in the number of texts to be read in Latin and in English for admission 
to college. 

ARTHUR S. SOMERS, Member of the High School Committee of the 
Board of Education, New York City. 

I have your letter of the 19th instant and note with very great 
interest the effort that your association is making to have the require- 
ments for college entrance modified and placed upon a more reasonable 
basis. 

I am sure that this effort must win the applause of everyone in- 
terested in the matter of college education. Of course, I have not 
had a great deal of experience in such matters, not being a college 
man, but I cannot lose sight of the fact that the feeling is growing 
among business men generally, that the colleges are not making the 
most of their opportunity to fit men for active participation in the 
affairs of life, and this, I believe, is due largely to the restrictions 
with which the entrance is surrounded. It does seem to me that if a 

34 



proper and more democratic view were taken of the equipment nec- 
essary for college entrance, it would result in a brighter and more 
generally useful man at the end of his college course. 

This is not the time to follow the lead of such a discussion, but 
I cannot refrain from this brief expression as my reason for being 
largely in favor of the effort of your organization. No criticism of 
the college is intended. On the contrary, I would that every yoiing 
man, as far as possible, might have the advantage of college training 
of the right sort; but, unfortunately, I find in my experience many col- 
lege men who are seriously handicapped because they have been edu- 
cated over the heads of the actual necessities of life. 



CHARLES F. HARPER, Principal Syracuse Central High School, 

New York. 

Superintendent Blodgett has asked me to answer your letter to 
him when I answer the one you wrote me. I have carefully considered 
the statement of your "Committee on Conference with the Colleges" 
and find that I agree heartily with it for the most part. I believe that 
classes in a subject should be taught the same subject matter whether 
they are preparing for college or for life. No one can tell in advance 
what a pupil will do after graduation. 

Clark College has surely set a splendid example to the other col- 
leges in the matter of admission requirements. Any pupil who has 
completed a carefully outlined course of study in a high grade high 
school should find no difficulty in entering any college. A reduction of 
the so-called required subjects, with greater freedom in the choice of 
electives that could be offered, together with the recognition of any 
subjects that are definite and well-taught in high schools, would 
remove the difficulties which are found at the present time. I question 
whether some subjects such as typewriting should be included in the 
list for recognition. 

There seems to be a general tendency on the part of all the best 
colleges to meet the demands of the high school for modified entrance 
requirements whenever they appear just. I believe that your recom- 
mendations will be gladly received by the colleges and recognized by 
greater freedom in the elective subjects which may be offered in the 
future. 



HENRY H. DENHAM, Principal Syracuse Techincal High School. 

So far as I have had time to consider the matter I most heartily 
indorse your statement. 



35 



CHARLES R. RICHARDS, Director, Cooper Union. 

"VMiile I do not feel that manual training in general high school 
courses is an element of serious importance, I think that a movement 
towards a broader system of accrediting high school work on the part 
of the colleges is in the right direction. It seems to me, however, 
that this is a matter that has its limitations, and that in the future 
development of specialized vocational high schools, special types of 
secondary schools will limit their aims as far as higher schools are 
concerned to preparation for special types of professional schools of 
college grade. 

ERNEST R. von NARDROFF, Principal Stuyvesant High School, 
New York City. 

I believe that the move made by the High School Teachers Asso- 
ciation toward the articulation of the high school and college is a 
great step in the right direction. I should like, however, to see in the 
list of subjects to be recognized by college entrance credits mechanical 
drawing represented by from one-half to two units, and, in place of 
"applied Physics" I should prefer the more general expression of "ad- 
vanced physics" to correspond to "advanced chemistry." 

WILLIAM L. FELTER, Ph. D., Principal Girls High School, Brooklyn. 

I congratulate your committee on the excellent scheme which it has 
proposed. Your difficulty has been to adjust conditions which grow 
out of the former one type high school. So long as pupils are persu- 
ing the academic course the present requirements for admission to 
colleges can easily be met. But with the differentiation of high 
schools, with the introduction of the manual training, technical and 
commercial schools, the pupils attending these new types of high 
schools are placed at a decided disadvantage. If pupils knew when 
they entered high school what their after life was to be, plans might 
be made accordingly, but in nearly every case neither the pupil nor 
the parent is able to decide. The high school course is the season for 
testing, for developing latent powers, for deciding what the future 
career is to be. Even in the academic schools pupils do not decide as 
to a college career until within a fortnight of the date of graduation. 
With the present rigid college entrance requirements, if a pupil has 
made a misstep anywhere along the line of his high school work, 
this step may have fatal results. 

While Latin has always been the supreme test of the high school 
pupil's ability, any educator of any standing would deem that other 
subjects might have equally great value in determining the test. Native 
genius and capability should be elements entering into the fitting 

36 



of a pupil for college rather than the time element. For illustration, 
a bright pupil is able to prepare for college in three and one-half 
years, and in my own experience, with but three years of high school 
training has won university scholarships. 

The work done in good commercial and technical schools demands 
recognition from colleges. Then, too, the importance placed upon his- 
tory, especially with reference to the making of history from day to 
day, is worthy of serious consideration. 

If the plan adopted by you is accepted, and I earnestly trust it will 
be, by the colleges, high schools of all types will stand upon exactly 
the same footing. It will remain for the pupils in the newer types of 
schools to demonstrate to the college authorities that the training given 
in their subjects has as much educational value as the old line of 
academic training. I believe your plan is worthy of endorsement and 
of a protracted trial at the hands of the college authorities. 



NORTH CAROLINA 

JAMES Y. JOYNER, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
President of the National Education Association. 

The Articulation of High School and College would have been an 
excellent topic for discussion, either on the general program or on one 
of the departmental programs, and I wish you had suggested it to 
me before the completion of the general program. I regard it as an 
exceedingly important subject, and I agree, in the main, with the views 
expressed in the excellent statement of your committee. 



NORTH DAKOTA 

RICHARD HAYWARD, State High School Inspector. 

Your letter to State Superintendent, W. L. Stockwell, has been 
handed to me for reply. In general, I heartily approve of the ideas 
set forth by your Association. I believe that almost any high school 
pupil can well afford to spend sufficient time to do two or three units 
of foreign language before graduating; but except for the few more 
time than that is misspent. All high school graduates should have 
done besides some foreign language in most cases, some work in 
mathematics, history and civics, science, and at least three units in 
English. He should also have given i/g to % of his time in high school 
to music and drawing, and manual training, domestic science, com- 
mercial or agricultural subjects. In my opinion such work, well done, 
should be accepted for entrance to college. 

37 



I do not agree that a college should accept any high school graduate; 
because that would probably mean that the college would have to dis- 
miss some of them after a short trial and that would not be fair to the 
high school graduate. Again, in my opinion a high school pupil's work 
should be over half academic, — there is a chance of going too far with 
vocational training in high school. 



OHIO 

CHARLES S. HOWE, Ph.D., President Case School of Applied Science, 

Cleveland. 

This is a technical school and hence its requirements are quite differ- 
ent from those of the ordinary college. We accept drawing — both 
mechanical and free hand, — joinery, pattern making, forging, and 
machine shop practice, for admission. We also allow botany, zoology, 
physiography, advanced physics, advanced chemistry, modern history, 
civics, and economics to be presented for admission up to four units. 
We have not yet felt that we could accept commercial subjects. 

There is one objection to a technical school's accepting whatever sub- 
jects the student brings from the high school, because our students 
must go on with higher mathematics, with English, with drawing and 
descriptive geometry, and with modern languages. If part of the 
students came with one preparation in each of these subjects, and part 
with some other preparation, there would be no starting point for any 
of them; or rather there would be several starting points for our 
college work, and it would be exceedingly difficult to properly classify 
the freshmen. 

In reply to a subsequent inquiry. President Howe writes: 

I cannot give you information in regard to the effect of drawing and 
shop work upon our students because we have never made a list of these 
men nor a comparison between them and others. I am perfectly satis- 
fied in my own mind that manual training work when carried on in 
the right way is helpful in the mental as well as in the manual develop- 
ment of students. 

We have always been willing to accept commercial law and I believe 
economics for admission. These would come under elective subjects. 
Commercial geography has never come before us for discussion. I 
presume that if a student should offer it and should also offer the other 
subjects which we absolutely require, there would be no hesitation in 
giving him full credit for it. 

ALSTON ELLIS, LL.D., President Ohio University, Athens. 

My opinion is that the colleges and universities of the country will 
have to make their entrance requirements more flexible to conditions 



that now exist in the secondary schools. The old-time requirements 
were good in their day but they have outlived the time when they 
can be applied with satisfactory results. I do not feel that we have 
rounded out a perfect plan at Ohio University, but we surely have 
devised one that will meet modern conditions better than any that 
I know to be in operation in other higher institutions of learning. 

GEORGE M. JONES, Secretary Oberlin College, Oberlin. 

I am very much interested in the work of your committee. It 
seems to me that the graduates of good high schools ought to be able 
to secure admission to college whether they have taken the regular 
"college preparatory" course or not, and I expect that the example 
of Clark College will be followed by. many other colleges. Oberlin has 
a minimum language requirement of four units. These can be pre- 
sented in Latin or a combination of Latin and a second language. We 
specify a minimum of two units in Latin and have not yet reached the 
point where we are willing to release this requirement for our A.B. 
degree. Perhaps the time has come for this change, and I shall take 
pleasure in presenting your circular to our Committee on Admission to 
see whether the committee will be willing to allow four years of French 
or German to meet the language requirement without any Latin. We 
have no B.S. course and there is no discrimination against Latin. 

WILLIAM E. SMYSER, Registrar, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware. 

This institution (Ohio Wesleyan University) has for a number of 
years observed the recommendations of the North Central Associa- 
tion of Colleges and Secondary Schools with regard to the acceptance 
of certificates from approved High Schools. High School subjects 
are accepted to the total of fifteen units in assigning the candidate 
to Freshmen classification. In case the candidate has not completed 
certain subjects prescribed for admission, he makes up his deficiency 
in the sub-Freshman studies with the classes of the academic depart- 
ment, so that a very satisfactory articulation between the work of the 
college and the secondary school has been effected. Our experience 
has been that the plan works well, and I believe that this is the 
general experience of the other colleges of Ohio which are co-operat- 
ing in the same way. 

W. W. BOYD, Dean, College of Education, Ohio State University, 

Columbus. 

Your statement addressed to Dr. Thompson, the President of our 
University, has been referred to me for reply. 

In the beginning, permit me to express an appreciation of the 

39 



effort you are making for a closer articulation between high schools 
and colleges. The high school does not exist for the purpose of pre- 
paring a few persons for the acquirement of a monopDly in education. 
It exists to make ordinary knowledge more universal. But, as long 
as it leaves the student after a full course with the rudiments only 
of knowledge, it should leave him in that condition wherein he can 
get more knowledge. However, it does not seem to be the business of 
the college to take a student at any station of educational attainment 
and by adding four years of work graduate him with a degree. If 
the college is to arrive at a given point at a fixed rate of speed, it 
must establish a starting place. This is what causes the high school 
to feel the burden of college entrance requirements. These require- 
ments may be fixed, arbitrary and in some cases unreasonable. But 
very much more of the reputation, if not the character, of an educa- 
tional institution is determined by its starting place than by its 
stopping place. As colleges have different ideals, they will naturally 
establish different starting places. 

As I am not familiar either with the entrance requirements of Clark 
College or with the curricula of the New York high schools, I am 
unable to say whether it would be considered wise for our authorities 
here to follow the lead of Clark College in admitting students from 
the New York high schools. 

A student may enter our College of Arts as a candidate for the A.B. 
degree with no Latin or Greek. He will be required to offer four 
units of foreign language which may be Latin, Greek, German, French 
or Spanish. Some credit is given for physiography, zoology, botany, 
physiology, agriculture, free hand drawing, manual training and 
domestic science. 

The necessity for a divergence in high school courses for "prepara- 
tion for life" and "preparation for college," which your circular indi- 
cates, does not seem to be well established. A better articulation of 
both institutions may lead to better results for the high school stu- 
dent who does not intend to go to college as well as for the one who 
intends to go. It has not been proved that the so-called course of 
study in "preparation for life" will save the great number of boys 
.ind girls who are said to be sacrificed by the course of study in 
"preparation for college," Some pupils have an aversion to work of 
any kind. I feel that any course of study which does not involve 
plenty of real work will be a failure. It is true that an interest in 
some studies may stimulate work. The larger truth is that some 
teachers have an ability to stimulate zealous effort with any study. 
In the high school as elsewhere the teacher is the greatest factor. 

I have no doubt the service of your committee will be a great aid 

40 



to our colleges and universities in the solution of the vexed question. 
If we can be of further assistance to you in any way, we will be 
glad to know it. 

WILLIAM H. ELSON, City Superintendent, Cleveland. 

I am much pleased at the statement issued by your organization. 
T approve most heartily of the movement toward more liberal interpre- 
tation of college entrance requirements. 



PENNSYLVANIA 

ISAAC SHARPLESS, LL.D., President Haverford College, Haverford. 

I should be very glad to co-operate with any movement which would 
increase the ability of the high schools to give the courses of study they 
think is best for them, and at the same time send their students to 
college. We have gone some distance in Haverford College in this 
direction. I do not feel sure, however, that it will be r'ght for us to 
adopt the whole of your list of subjects even for elective subjects, but 
your circular will cause us to consider very carefully whether we can 
add something to our present list; nor does it seem to me to be wise 
for us to reduce the requirements of admission from two languages 
to one. Any two foreign languages will now admit to our college. 

GEORGE EDWARD REED, S. T. D., LL. D., President Dickinson 
College, Carlisle, Pa. 

The majority of the faculty of Dickinson College are of the opinion 
that there should be a closer articulation between the high schools 
of the country and the colleges. 

My personal opinion is that students who have completed a four-year 
course of study in a high school of high and approved rank might 
justly be entered in any college or university even though the student 
may have pursued what is known as the commercial course or have 
taken his course in a technical training school where sufficient em- 
phasis is placed upon purely cultural studies. Most of these studies 
are mentioned in your circular, especially Music, Modern History, 
Civics, Economics, Commercial Law, Advanced Bookkeeping and Ac- 
counting, etc., and might well be recognized in college entrance cred- 
its. Here in Dickinson college we have one course of study called the 
scientific course, where, under one set of conditions, a student need 
not present Latin as meeting one of the requirements of admission in 
said course, but he must be able to present a large amount of work 
in two modern languages. We have not been giving credit for the 

41 



subjects enumerated in your letter, but my judgment is that the time 
is coming when this will be done. 

I hope that out of the discussion which is now going on in the 
country there may come a closer articulation of the college and the 
high school and a proper differentiation also, if possible, in the work 
of the institutions of the kind described. 



JOSEPH SWAIN, President, Swarthmore College. 

The difficulty you mention has been partially solved at Swarthmore by 
allowing a wide range of choice of entrance subjects. 

A. H. ESPENOHADE, Registrar Pennsylvania State College. 

Personally I am in hearty accord with the ground which your com- 
mittee takes in its circular letter. For admission to this college we 
now require three units of English; three of Mathematics (which 
include Algebra through Quadratics, and Plane and Solid Geometry) ; 
two units of history; two units or years of some one language; two 
units of science and two units of electives. A pretty wide range of 
different subjects may be chosen for the two elective units; and yet 
this range of electives is not so wide as that proposed in your recent 
letter. 

REV. S. B. McCORMICK, LL.D., Chancellor University of Pittsburgh. 

I submitted to several important members of our Faculty your letter 
and statement. The expressions of opinion which came are as follows: 
— they, in general, accord with my own views: 

"All admit the waste in education to-day because of the imperfect 
articulation of the High School and College. 

There is a clear question as to whether there is not too much of 
the 'practical' in this suggested solution to this very serious difficulty. 

I am not ready to say that this suggested reduction in the present 
requirements in order that the High School may take in even a greater 
variety of what this plan wants recognized as standard subjects will 
bring a better articulation of High School and College. 

The whole question of High School 'electives' merits the most care- 
ful consideration in this connection." — J. H. White. 

"The need of adjustment between High School and College is 
certainly pressing. 

I am not in favor of dropping the requirement of two modern 
languages, except where the group system prevails when the amount 
of preparation varies. 

I would like to see the certificate of all High Schools accepted for 
entrance, but that state of things depends upon the High Schools them- 

42 



selves. With Professor Gibbs, I believe that quality — not quantity is 
wanted." — G. A. M. Dyess. 

"I believe these suggestions are worthy of serious considerafion." 
— R. T. Stewart. 

"Colleges may recognize the subjects listed on the last page of the 
circular, provided the student be allowed to present from this group 
not more than five of the fifteen units required fcr entrance. 

The reduction of entrance requirements to one foreign language 
(four units) is to be approved. 

Colleges will be more ready to grant credits for industrial subjects 
than they are at present, after they all see an improvement in the 
quality of preparation. Merely quantitative standards prevail too 
exclusively at present." — L. R. Gibbs. 

"I should like to see the certificate of a High School giving a four 
years' course accepted for its value as a whole rather than for the exact 
number of units that might be counted up from it upon the basis of 
the standards now in force. I agree with Professor Gibbs that we most 
pressingly need quality rather than quantity standards, and I should 
be very much in favor of letting a pupil who showed his preparation by 
his performance — in College classes— go on with them whether certain 
exact conditions of admission were fulfilled or not so long as no con- 
dition exists that does not break a logical continuity of subject, or 
prevent progress to higher reaches in it." — A. E. Frost. 

"Surely this movement is timely. There is a lamentable lack of 
articulation between High School and uollege, — between the work 
which the High School must do and that which the College may do. 

For entrance requirements to the School of Economics, I should be 
glad to have all the subjects mentioned (excepting possibly music 
and household science and art) recognized by college entrance credits. 

I approve the suggestion that only one foreign language be required 
for admission." — J. T. Holdsworth. 

CHEESMAN A. HERRICK, President Girard College, Philadelphia. 

I am interested in your communication as I have spent nearly twenty 
years in High School work. 

Girard College, however, is neither a college nor a school which fits 
for College, so that we are not specifically concerned in your communi- 
cation. I wish you success in the good work you are doing, 

A. DUNCAN YOCUM, Professor of Pedagogy, University of 
Pennsylvania. 

While I cannot speak for the university I am in hearty sympathy 
with the general recommendations bf your committee. I would 
cheerfully do anything that I can to further your movement here or 
elsewhere, 

43 



REED B. TIETRICK, Deputy State Superintendent. 

There is a field for important work in the line of reorganization of secon- 
dary education. The first business of the high school is not to "prepare 
for college." If colleges can accept "preparation for life" as entrance re- 
quirements without harming the work of the college, such a scheme would 
be a decided "step" in the cause of education. It would seem that the 
subjects which you propose could be recognized as college entrance credits. 
It is not so much 7v/iafone studies as it is t/iat he studies and how he studies. 



OLIVER P. CORNMAN, Ph.D., Associate Superintendent, 
Philadelphia. 

Your letter and statement has been referred to me for reply. We 
are in hearty accord with the most radical suggestions of your state- 
ment, and if the recommendation could not be accomplished, we believe 
that the modifications suggested in lieu thereof to be both feasible and 
wise. We trust that the work that you have performed upon this prob- 
lem will have some practical outcome, and that some reform may be 
accomplished in the not too distant future, 

JAMES J. PALMER, City Superintendent, Oil City. 

I am very much pleased that your organization has taken up this 
question, and I assure you that I heartily approve the position the 
association has taken in this matter. The High School is no longer a 
special preparatory school for the college, and besides the High School 
is manned in many cases by just as capable teachers as are those found 
in the college. There is no doubt that the high school ought to be 
allowed the freedom that would develop its proper sphere of useful- 
ness in the community. 

EDWARD RYNEARSON, Director of High Schools, Pittsburgh. 

I am delighted with the spirit of your letter of the 10th inst, and of 
the enclosures, and am much interested in your movement. High 
school men everywhere are interested in the work you are planning in 
New York. 

W. D. LEWIS, Principal William Penn High School for Girls, 
Philadelphia. 

Until the colleges recognize as a unit for entrance any subject es- 
sential to the education of any boy or girl, our high schools will be 
very much handicapped. The problem of the high school to-day is 
that of adjustment to the needs of young people who are to live their 
lives in a complicated civilization. The courses must therefore be 
broad in order to prepare pupils to meet widely differing demands. 

44 



Great numbers of these boys and girls do not know whether or not 
they will go to college until they are well along in the high school 
course. If the work already done is not accepted for entrance, the 
doors are closed to many of the most promising students. 

It is time for the colleges to abandon the fetish of classicism and 
recognize themselves as an integral part of the educational machinery 
of the country. 

Principal Lewis sends us the following statements from prominent 
educators : 

President Jordan. — H. S. [stands for] well rounded education. 
"This is all that the colleges have a right to ask, and for them to 
specify certain classes of subjects, regardless of the real interests 
of the secondary schools is a species of impertinence which only tradi- 
tion justifies." 

G. Stanley Hall. — The domination of the high school by the college 
is an anacronism, a survival from a very different period in the 
nation's life. 

Prof. Perrin, Boston University. — They are the most preposterous 
requirements for the admission of boys to college. The ones who 
are to leave school and go to work are the ones who are hurt the most. 

E. J. Goodwin. — We are gradually coming to recognize the injustice 
of organizing our high school in the interest of the few alone who 
are able to command a liberal or semi-liberal education. 

Prof. Samuel Wendell Williston, Chicago University. — The fact that 
only twelve per cent, of those who enter high school ever graduate is 
largely due to the influence of the college, 

C. P. Carey, State Superintendent, Wisconsin Schools. — Examination 
for entrance to college means dry-rot in the secondary school * * * 

What we ask is that the universities should release their grip on 
the schools of the state, and give them a chance to develop. They 
ought to be permitted to develop freely from within and not be forced 
into the Chinese, shoe of college entrance requirements. 

Emperor William in 1890.. — We ought to train up young Germans 
with a national spirit, not as Greeks or Romans. We must depart 
from the basis which has been the tradition of centuries, from monastic 
schools of the middle ages when Latin was the chief thing with a 
little Greek in addition. I will therefore approve the foundation of 
no more schools in the future unless their necessity can be proved. 

Vocational Fr'y in large cities, 

Wm. Orr, Sch. Rev. Jn. '09. 417. 

Superintendent Stratton D. Brooks. — ^The demands as to admission 
should be based upon the unofficial or at least unsystematic judgment 

46 



of the principal. By this I mean that no schematic arrangement of 
percentage or subterfuges or reports should take the place of the 
real judgment of the principal. 

Prof. G. H. Nettleton, Yale. — Much good ink is shed yearly in dis- 
cussion of educational ideals for prep, schools, but so long as the 
college examiner remains the final judge from whose verdict no 
effective appeal can be taken, the secondary schools must inevitably 
conform in large measure to the methods of the particular court 
before ever the cases of their pupils come to trial. 

JOSEPH G. E. SMEDLEY, Principal Chester High School, Chester. 

I see no good reason why colleges should not make up a list of 
approved high schools, name certain approved and acceptable courses, 
and then admit the graduates of such schools and courses on the 
recommendations of the principals. It imposes a great burden when 
principals are required to fill out a number of very detailed certificates. 
It should be easy to withhold the privilege of recommendation from 
schools abusing the privilege. 

CHARLES S. FOOS, City Superintendent, Reading. 

I concur fully in the statement made by your association. I trust 
that your scheme will find favor and I believe that its adoption will 
do away with college domination and make the High Schools of the 
country what they ought to be, fitting schools not only for those who 
go to college but for those who do not go to college. I assure you of 
my earnest co-operation. 

EDWARD S. LING, Superintendent, Lock Haven. 

I have read your statement with interest. It seems to me that the 
changes therein suggested in college entrance requirements must come 
soon. We have felt quite keenly the injustice in the non-recognition 
of certain kinds of work which we feel that we should give our pupils 
to train them for life. We do not believe that the students should be 
divided into the two classes. Its results have been unsatisfactory to 
us. Let us give them the preparation for life and let the colleges rec- 
ognize this as suflicient preparation for college, when the preparation 
has been thorough. 

We should be glad to see the recommendations of your statement put 
into practical operation throughout the country. 

RHODE ISLAND 

REV. WILLIAM H. P. FAUNCE, LL.D., President Brown University, 

Providence. 

I believe that the teachers and principals are right in asking for a 
closer articulation and a more fiexible system of entrance requirements. 

46 



The colleges are now moving toward more "required work" after stu- 
dents enter college, thiS) to be accompanied by less "required work" in 
preparation for college. That is to say, the college should determine 
more specifically what students should study after they enter, and 
the high schools should determine more specifically what they wish 
their students to study while in the high school. I believe in the reduc- 
tion of required subjects for admission to college, and one foreign 
language is enough in the case of many students. 1 believe there should 
be no discrimination against Latin for the course leading to the B.S. 
degree. 

I am unable to go as far in this matter, however, as your Teachers' 
Association. Possibly you forget that while it is quite safe for all 
the eastern colleges to accept the graduates of any New York High 
School, yet we have to deal not simply with the high schools of New 
York City, but with those of small and backward country towns 
throughout the land. These high schools are usually destitute of 
laboratories or libraries, and rarely have adequate teaching force. 
When such a high school sends its pupils who offer shop work or 
joinery or pattern-making, of course the situation is ludicrous. When 
such high schools present physiography or zoology, there is no way 
we have of estimating the value or meaning of such a course. 

If w© are to accept skill in manipulating a typewriter for admission 
to college, should we not accept skill in using the sewing machine or 
in operating a trolley-car? I believe there is a good deal more educa- 
tion gained in operating an electric car than in operating a typewriter, 
but how can we estimate the amount of education thus gained? 

I have thus stated a few of the difficulties. Many of the subjects you 
mention as proper preparation for college cannot be taught in three- 
fourths of the high schools of this country. But with your main posi- 
tion I am heartily in sympathy, and shall bring the matter at once 
before my Faculty. 

WALTER E. RANGER, State Commissioner of Public Schools. 

I sincerely commend the purpose of your committee to promote a 
better articulation of high schools and colleges, and heartily approve 
its statement regarding the need of a reorganization of secondary 
education. I have long realized the need of greater freedom of the 
secondary school in determining courses and subjects, chiefly for the 
good of its students. Twenty-seven years ago, as principal of a sec- 
ondary school, I introduced into regular courses commercial law, civics, 
economics, as well as several scientific and commercial branches. Most 
boys and girls preparing for college elected the three subjects named. 
This indicates my attitude toward arts and subjects suggested by needs 
of students and urged by popular demand. 

47 



VERMONT 

JOHN M. THOMAS, D. D., President Middlebury College. 

I wish to acknowledge your communication of May 19th enclosing 
the important statement of the High School Teachers' Association of 
New York City concerning college entrance requirements. I shall refer 
these documents to our committee on admission. In the meantime may 
I say that I am heartily in favor of the views expressed by your 
Committee. I believe the college should join itself to the high school 
and that the public high school should not be required to adapt itself 
to the college. The secondary school should have the responsibility of 
giving to its pupils the education demanded by their environment and 
suited to their time of life, without embarrassment from other con- 
siderations. I should be glad to admit without further requirements 
the graduates of the high schools of New York City. 

Your suggestion that there should be no discrimination against Latin 
for the course leading to the B.S. degree is excellent, and I think 
we should not hesitate to allow credit for subjects specified on the 
last page of your circular. 



MASON S. STONE, State Superintendent of Education. 

In response to yours of the 26th, I hasten to state that in my opinion 
a public high school, being a public institution and supported by public 
funds, should not fit for college. The college should fit to the high 
school. The chief function of the high school is to enable the individual 
to find out what he can best do and to give him a certain degree of cul- 
ture and discipline. If^he individual is required to fit the school and 
the school does not fit the individual, the individual becomes crippled, 
and we are having too many deformities as a result of our restricted 
and required courses. 



ALBERT W. VARNEY, City Superintendent, Bennington. 

I am most heartily in accord with the position taken by your Associa- 
tion. I believe the fairest and most satisfactory arrangement would 
be to accept graduates from any four years' high school course, but on 
certificate of the principal that the individual has the fit and mental 
power to do college work. It is a question of mental power not of any 
set of subjects passed. Many graduates from country high schools 
have not the mental power nor natural ability necessary for college 
work. You mention Clark, but that college asks for only the best. It 
does not undertake to give a college education to all who hold a high 

48 



school diploma. I think, therefore, that a principal's certificate of 
fitness is the one requirement in addition to a four years' high school 
course. If this cannot be obtained as the requirement, then your rec- 
ommendations would be the next best change. I approve especially of 
the one foreign language requirement. 

Our high school principal, Mr. H. B. Dickinson, also endorses your 
recommendations. 



A. E. TUTTLE, Principal Bellows Falls High School. 

I approve this idea most heartily, and, in justice to all concernefl, 
the colleges must very soon adopt the plan outlined above. 



WASHINGTON 

EDWARD O. SISSON, Professor of Education, University of 
Washington. 

I may say that the University of Washington has already made to 
the high schools practically all the concessions you suggest in the 
circular. 



49 



SECONDARY DEPARTMENT 

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

RESOI.UTIONS Adopted Jui.y, 1910 

WHEREAS, a wide range of high school subjects is now demanded 
in view of the varied needs of society and the diversified interests of 
different students, and 

WHEREAS, manual training, commercial branches, music, house- 
hold science and art, agriculture, etc., when well taught and thoroughly 
learned are worthy of, and justly entitled to, recognition in college 
entrance credits, and 

WHEREAS, colleges in certain parts of the United States continue 
to require two foreign languages from every applicant regardless of 
his dominant interest, and 

WHEREAS, this requirement in addition to such work in English, 
Mathematics, History, and Science as is essential to the high school 
course of every student precludes the possibility of giving adequate 
attention to these other subjects, therefore be it 

RESOLVED, that it is the sense of the Secondary Department of 
the National Education Association that the interests of high school 
students would be advanced by the reduction of the requirement in 
foreign language to one such language and the recognition as electives 
of all subjects well taught in the high school, and be it further 

RESOLVED, that it is the sense of this Department that until such 
modification is made by the colleges, the high schools will be greatly 
hampered in their attempts to serve the best interests of boys and 
girls in the public high school. 



DEPARTMENT OF MANUAL TRAINING AND ART 

EDUCATION 

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

ResoIvUTions Adopted Jui.y, 1910 

WHEREAS, many High Schools in the United States are now giving 
good courses in Shop Work, Drawing, Household Science and Art, and 

WHEREAS, these subjects contribute to the increase of intellectual 
and imaginative power, to the broadening of social understanding, and 



to the usefulness and happiness of the student in ways not afforded by 
other subjects, and 

WHEREAS, the recognition of these subjects by college entrance 
credits would encourage High Schools in extending and intensifying 
this work, therefore be it 

RESOLVED, by the Manual Training Section of the National Edu- 
cation Association that the colleges be urged to grant recognition to 
these subjects as electives whenever this work is well taught in any 
High School. 



DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS EDUCATION 
NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

RESOI.UTIONS Adopted July 1910 

WHEREAS, many college graduates enter business life and nearly 
every college graduate requires some knowledge of business practice 
and theory, and 

WHEREAS, our high schools are now offering good courses in 
business and the graduates of business courses in the high school 
would often be encouraged to enter college if the work already done 
were recognized by college entrance credits, and 

WHEREAS, commercial efficiency would be increased and a right 
conception of business as a public service would be more readily 
inculcated in our youth if commercial courses were given the recog- 
nition to which they are justly entitled, therefore be it 

RESOLVED, by the Business Section of the National Education 
Association, that colleges be and hereby are urged, in the interests 
both of our boys and girls, and of higher standards of business 
efficiency and integrity, to grant college entrance credit to business 
courses and that the entrance requirements in foreign languages be 
reduced. 



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